The 2009-2010 National Basketball Association regular season
is over and TV rights holder Turner Sports has seen major dividends from its
investment.
According to the company, the season was the most-watched
NBA regular season on cable since the 1995-1996 season in households
(1,315,000), total viewers (1,723,000) and P18-34 (544,000). All told, 53 games
of NBA coverage on TNT delivered at least a 1.1 rating.
On the new media front, NBA Digital, jointly managed by
Turner and the NBA, broke a number of records. NBA.com streamed a record 1
billion videos since the 2008-2009 season ended, up 65% from the year prior.
Likewise, NBA Mobile apps have been downloaded more than 1.7 million times
since the launch of the NBA Game Time app a year ago.
Now Turner is hoping to capitalize on its regular season
numbers as it kicks off the postseason April 18.
In 2009, the network averaged a 3.1 U.S. household
rating for 43 games in the postseason, up 19 percent over the previous year (41
games), with 4,708,000 total viewers, a 24 percent increase (3,795,000).
TNT averaged a 2.6 U.S.
rating (2,937,000 households) during the 2008 NBA Playoffs coverage, up 14
percent in average total viewers (3,795,000) over the 43 games in 2007.
